Uplink: Hacker Elite allows you to play the role of a computer hacker in a high tech world of computer crime and industrial espionage.
In the game, you start out by creating an account with a service that helps hackers. It provides you with a "gateway", which is your primary connection to the net. It has a store for buying software and hardware upgrades for your system and has a bulletin-board where you can find hacking jobs to do for money. The game play is similar to that in a role-playing game. You do jobs and get money and a better reputation for successes you have. With the money, you can purchase upgrades so that you can take on more challenging jobs that make more money.
The game starts you out with an optional tutorial, and you'll need it. It walks you through all the basics and even shows you how to do a simple hacker run. A hacker run consists of making a connection to a machine (though you will need to make sure the connection is not direct, but bounces through a number of other computers in the network first.) You will also want to be running some software that detects if you're being traced and gives you some warning about it. Once you connect, there is generally some sort of sign-on screen and you need to run software that will allow you to break in, like a password cracker. It runs and eventually you gain access. From there, you snoop around the machine (which consists of a few simple menus for the most part). The first missions are either deleting a file or copying a file off the machine you hacked into. So, you run some software to do that, and disconnect before the trace is complete.
Uplink does a good job with the element of pressure. You have to work quickly to break in and do what you need to do before the trace is complete. It certainly got my blood pumping. Uplink also seems to have a lot of complexity. There are many upgrades you can get for your computer and increasingly interesting jobs to take on as well as new dangers to face. For example, you soon learn that passive traces can still get you, so you have to also put some work into covering your tracks by changing log files before you disconnect.
Ultimately, I didn't get very far in Uplink. The tension was cool, but also frustrating and not fun for me, just stressful. Also, a fair amount of what I needed to do was just tedious. I was able to do the file deleting and copying missions no problem, but as I got to the missions where I needed to change information, I ran into frustrations with the interface and my own poor typing skills (especially under pressure). Failing missions by getting traced means that you lose status and often get fined some money. On top of the fine, you have to manually connect to the bank and enter a couple long numbers to do the transfer (which is just tedious - why couldn't this be automatic?). The game doesn't allow you to go back to a previous save point, so if this happens a few times, it easy to get frustrated and just want to give up, as I did.
People who are persistent, have a lot of time to spend on this game, good at typing and working under pressure will likely be able to go further in the game that I did. From looking at some FAQs, I can see that the game offers a lot of complexity as you advance and ultimately a major plot develops. Also, game-play is non-linear. You can simply snoop around the network, finding places to connect to. For example, you can connect to the stock exchange, create an account, and trade stocks. Often the missions you are doing will influence the prices. Everything you do in the game is through network connections, so you can generally hack anything.
I love the idea of this game. I want to play a hacker role-playing game, but the interface was ultimately too much of a struggle for me and just not fun. I could also complain about the music in the game which is very cheesy, but at least you can turn it off. Also, the graphics are nothing special. The learning curve is pretty bad, though the tutorial did get me on track. After that, I had trouble knowing what to do though. There was a minimal help system, but it wasn't enough.
Uplink was developed by Introversion Software and distributed by Strategy First, both UK companies. Introversion's web site has a lot of good resources, including a demo, a patch and an active forum area.
